Ah Venice! The canals, palazzos, gondoliers, vaporetti... the bellinis. Jeff Atman, hack writer, is in town for the Biennale. Ostensibly to fulfil a freelance commission; actually to attend as many parties and soak up as much free booze as logistically possible. Then he meets Laura. Suddenly, amid the compulsive socialising and irony-clad banter, there is the possibility of something more.

And then there is Varanasi. A freelance writer arrives to do a travel piece. Just a short visit: time to take in the impossible traffic, the dubious waters of the Ganges, the ordure-streaked ghats and multifarious gods; and to encounter destiny.

A tale of two very different cities that appear surprisingly similar. Two separate stories that may, in fact, be one. Ingenious and vastly entertaining, Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi is a novel about love, death-and the various processes of transformation.